U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke hosted a meeting with Singapore’s Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang at the Commerce Department today. This was the first meeting between Minister Lim and Secretary Locke.

Secretary Locke and Minister Lim expressed a commitment to strengthening an already robust bilateral commercial relationship, grounded in the extremely successful U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Since implementation of the FTA in January 2004, two-way trade between the United States and Singapore has increased 41 percent, with U.S. exports increasing nearly 74 percent over the same time period.

Secretary Locke also assured Minister Lim of the United States’ commitment to Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Secretary Locke praised Singapore’s strong leadership as Chair of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2009, and assured Minister Lim that the United States will remain engaged with the Asia-Pacific region through the APEC organization.

“I want to underscore our appreciation for Singapore’s leadership in APEC and the solid contributions to APEC work being made this year,” Secretary Locke said.